Ever since I started riding, I’ve been a big fan of full-face helmets. Generally speaking, I won’t even ride to the gas station without one. And considering that I have been dragged across my face in a crash once, but managed to walk away uninjured because I was wearing just such a helmet, I consider it a pretty good choice on my part.
Modular helmets make a ton of sense, though, depending on the kind of riding you’re doing. From the ease of chatting with riding buddies at stops to being able to simply pop your chin bar up over your head to run inside a convenience store for a bathroom key or a snack, there are so many scenarios where having to take your helmet all the way off and then put it all the way back on again are less than ideal.
Sure, they have a reputation for being noisier than a nice full-face helmet. But if you also tend to wear earplugs on your rides (and if you value your hearing, you should, because wind noise is no joke), I don’t necessarily feel like it matters all that much.
But what if you also want to do all kinds of modern things with your modular helmet? Like, say, listen to music and have it sound good, take navigation instructions from your app or GPS unit of choice in your ears, and/or chat with your buddies via Bluetooth or MESH comms?
That’s where the Sena Impulse modular comes into play. While you could, of course, install your favorite Sena comms unit (or one from a competitor) in any modular helmet you want, the Sena Impulse is meant to simplify things so you don’t have to mess around. It’s a one-stop solution that comprises a modular helmet with a Sena 50S comms unit already built in.
Features on the helmet include a drop-down sun visor, Pinlock-ready clear visor, plush removable cheek and head pads, and a micrometric quick-release closure that seems pretty secure, even if you tug hard on it. To open it, you have to press the red lever down. Skip that step, and the thing doesn’t seem to want to budge—which is how it should be. I haven’t crashed in this helmet, so I can’t say for sure how well it would hold in such a situation, but the fact that I can’t simply pull it apart seems encouraging.
In the box, you’ll find a helmet sock, the appropriate Pinlock shield that fits this visor (which you’ll have to install yourself; a normal occurrence for most Pinlock inserts), the proprietary USB cable that you’ll need to charge your helmet, and an inflatable Sena helmet donut that you’ll be glad you have when it’s time to charge the thing.
Yes, You Have To Charge Your Entire Helmet
Honestly, that’s my least favorite thing about this helmet: the fact that you have to plug the entire thing in any time you want to charge the comms unit.
If you have a comms unit that mounts on the outside of your helmet, you can usually just pop it off and plug it in wherever. It’s simple, it’s easy, and it doesn’t require either a great deal of counter space—or thought, really. You just do it. The light turns blue (if it’s a Sena, anyway) when it’s ready, you take it off the charging cable, and you pop it back on your helmet. No worries.
Not so with the Sena Impulse, except for the blue light part once it’s fully charged. Because the comms unit is built into the helmet, you can’t just pop it off and plug it in independently. Instead, you have to use the proprietary USB cable, which is a little magnetic thing that would be a nightmare to lose.
Also, because this cable attaches to the helmet magnetically rather than plugging in, and the port is located on the base of the helmet near the back of your neck if you’re wearing it, that means the ideal position to charge your helmet is upside down. If you were wondering why Sena would give you an inflatable helmet donut with this helmet, here’s your answer.
If that’s not a deal-breaker for you, though, the Sena Impulse isn’t a bad helmet to wear or to use. Obviously, your mileage will vary on both those points. Not everyone’s head is the same size or shape, and different helmets fit different people comfortably. I have a round earth head shape, and I found the suggested measurements to be accurate when selecting the proper size Impulse for my head.
The speakers, provided by Harman Kardon, sound great, particularly if you’re a fan of listening to music on your rides. Navigation comes through clearly, as well. The first few rides out, I did experience a sound issue with Bluetooth comms between myself and my partner, who was using an older Sena Bluetooth comms unit. While everything sounded good on my end, he had nothing but crackly, loud comms where my voice was barely audible.
We tried cleaning the contacts on his BT unit, where it snicks into place on the base plate. That didn’t help.
But then, I tried playing with the settings on the Impulse via the Sena Motorcycles phone app and that seemed to do the trick. Very specifically, I had to switch the HD Audio toggle to “Off,” (by default, it’s switched On) to get it to sound decent. It seems a bit counterintuitive, but it worked. Sound quality issues were then resolved, and we’ve been able to communicate on multiple rides ever since, for months now.
He’s also got a different comms unit on one helmet, provided by Midland. After following their instructions, we were successfully able to get it and the Sena Impulse to pair. It’s a bit of a fiddly process, but it will do the job that you want, as long as you have the patience.
I’ve been riding untold miles on multiple bikes with the Sena Impulse for months now, both rain and shine. One thing I particularly like about it is that the lowest visor detent is exactly where I want it when I want to crack it open for a little bit of additional airflow. That might seem like a small thing, and it probably is, but if you’ve ever had a detent put the bottom of your visor right where the wind is going to hit you in the eyes, then you know it’s a definite mark in the plus column.
If you’re ever trying to store the Sena Impulse in a pannier, you’ll appreciate its lack of external comms unit bulge. There’s also no need to worry about accidentally banging up a base plate for an external comms unit if you take it off, either. So there’s that.
The one significant issue I’ve had over the months that I’ve been riding with the Sena Impulse was the time that it randomly unpaired with my phone. The re-pairing process was much more difficult and frustrating than it should have been, mostly due to incorrect instructions in the Sena Motorcycles phone app at the time. I wrote about that entire situation here, but I’ll also add that we did eventually manage to resolve the issue.
Since re-pairing the Impulse with my phone, I’ve used navigation, made phone calls, and listened to music in the Impulse while riding. After not having listened to music in this helmet for over a month, I have to say, it was a particularly nice treat to experience again. It truly sounds fantastic, no matter what kind of music you’re into. Almost good enough to want to be a complete weirdo at your desk, wearing a helmet while you type instead of normal headphones like most other people slogging away at their computers. The Harman Kardon speakers remain fantastic (they’re also quite good in the Forcite MK1S that I had on loan for a review a while back).
Am I ever going to love plugging an entire helmet in every time I need to charge the comms unit (which was, to be completely fair, also a thing with the aforementioned MK1S)? Probably not.
But if that’s not an absolute dealbreaker for you, it’s functionally quite a good and comfortable helmet, and the sound is great if you like listening to music. As long as your helmet and the app are successfully paired, it’s a nice experience.
At the time of writing, the MSRP on the Sena Impulse is US $599, and the color selection is very limited (solid matte black and gloss white are basically it), with no graphic options available. However, that does also make these an ideal canvas if you were to, say, want to put some custom paint on your Sena Impulse.
